You know what I want, that is ridiculously expensive, and that I can in no way practically justify, but which I still have a serious hankering for? A sword cane. At least twice a week for the last couple of months, I’ve spent some time looking at the photos at the Burger Knives sword cane pages–especially the titanium “Stilletto” model.… Read more →
Year: 2008
For Fans of The Wire (and the morbidly curious)
I was fascinated to learn that the real Baltimore Sun has an interactive page/Google Maps application that shows the location of murders, and allows you to filter by age, race, gender, cause of death, and whether or not there was an article about the murder. (It also allows you to filter by district which is helpful for fans of The… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Peter Watts
“But going after the Scientologists in a world full of Christians, Muslims, and Trekkies is like surveying a world ravaged by AIDS and devoting yourself to the eradication of the hangnail.” —Peter Watts Read more →
Head Colds Are Annoying
No poker last night. No work today. Sudafed, Robitussin, Benylin, Drixoral, etc: No relief from symptoms. Otrivin right up the nose: actually works. I can breathe. This may mean I can sleep. This may mean I can get rid of this minor annoyance. Read more →
Anticipation
Please allow me to present several things that I am quite looking forward to. First up is the new album from Danny Michel. This should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog at all regularly–I hardly hide the fact that I’m pretty much a fanboy for Danny’s stuff. However, reading some of Danny’s announcements about the work… Read more →
CSS is driving me nuts
Aarrgh. My lovely blockquote CSS, with the indent and the nice vertical line works great all the time EXCEPT when I have an inline image on the left. For some (probably arcane) reason, in that case the margins/padding and border seem to “disappear” under the inline image. You can see the problem below. I’ve know about this for years, but… Read more →
Flat out of sight, totally together…
A while back I discovered that my wife somehow managed to grow up without seeing any of the Kurt Russell Disney mad-science-at-college movies from the late Sixties and early Seventies. So, I added the movies to my Zip queue, and while I was in Australia the first one, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, arrived. So we watched it earlier this… Read more →
I Live (Kinda)
(This is a bit journal-ish. Skip ahead if that kind of stuff doesn’t interest you.) You know, the last time I can back from Australia, I was hungover and carrying the Aussie death flu bug, and I was wiped out for several weeks. This time I seem to have been wiped out first, and then picked up an illness. I… Read more →
I’m glad it’s not just me
AN EXCUSE FOR NOT RETURNING THE VISIT OF A FRIEND Do not be offended because I am slow to go out. You know Me too well for that. On my lap I hold my little girl. At my Knees stands my handsome little son. One has just begun to talk. The other chatters without Stopping. They hang on my clothes… Read more →
Freestyle Friday
And here you have: My favourite Clash song when considering performances by the Clash. (I.e. I’d rather hear the Clash perform this than any other song. But, I’d still rather hear Danny Michel do Lost In A Supermarket.) Warren Zevon‘s Hollywood tragedy. I love a song with a story, especially if there’s enough vagueness to allow me to make up… Read more →
Ambivalence
On the one hand, I am really looking forward to being home. On the other hand I am really not looking forward to the process of getting home. My flight leaves Melbourne in two hours, then it’s 7 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour wait, then 14 and a half hours to London, then a 6 hour wait, then 7… Read more →
OK, You have to admit, that’s pretty damn funny
Jerry O’Connell’s message Read more →
In Passing: Vlado’s
I had no connectivity at the hotel last night, have been working full-on all day today, and am shortly going to head out for my (apparently) annual trip to Vlado’s. Since I start heading back home tomorrow, I’ll also have to pack tonight, so the odds are good that even if the Internet connectivity problem is sorted, I won’t have… Read more →
It’s like a movie plot
Did you see this bit on BoingBoing? Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit. They link to the original story in Swedish, which does me… Read more →
Jargon and Communication
Speaking of Scotsmen, let me say that as a general rule I am quite a fan of Hal Duncan’s blog–especially those gigantic blog entries where he intellectually swashbuckles his way through certain philosophical issues with verve and panache, using academic jargon like Mrs. Parker used wit. In particular, I have been intending for a while now to write an appreciation… Read more →
